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Wednesday, August 15, 2012

My first 6th edition tournament!

This last weekend I decided I would get over my lingering 6th edition doubts and jump into a local tournament! Unfortunately I was too hung over to take any pictures, but I had three really good games that may have potentially restored my faith in playing 40k at a competitive level.

This one's... For... 'MERICA!!!

I woke up bright and early Saturday morning and immediately regretted it. We had spent the night before at the zoo, drinking with bears and elephants. The "Brew at the zoo" as it is called. A bunch of breweries bring not enough beer and lots of people stand in line waiting for it and sweating their asses off. It was a good time.
I hungoverly stumbled into my garage and grabbed the first army case that came to hand and rolled out to breakfast with my girlfriend. I needed help to make it through this day of rolling dice, so I turned to the white mans hangover cure all, chili-cheese burritos. Flash-forward to 20 minutes later and I realize that I grabbed Grey Knights! I looked through what I had and mashed together a list that I thought would put 6th through it's paces a bit. Check it:

Game 1 vs IG (Ken)
Game 1 was against a cheerful fellow by the name of Ken. He was playing a mish-mash of guard units with allied Blood Angels! This was an interesting choice as he used the librarian to get the primaris divination power to guide his leman russ squadron! We played purge the alien with a hammer and anvil deployment and I took this one handily.
There were some interesting 6th edition interactions here. Obviously the allies was the big deal. His Librarian had to go, so I dropped in my strike squad and my dreadknight to bake the squad and take out the lib. He Dropped the jump troops, but they didn't really have any wargear so they weren't too much of a threat. We had a flyer battle, but we both came in as skimmers to deploy troops, so it wasn't that intense.

Game 2 vs SW (Ryan)
This game was against a mostly foot Space wolf list with an Aegis Defense Line with a quad gun. The match was pitched battler/capture and control. Or whatever bullshit marketing names they put on these to make them sound different...
This game showed how the secondary objectives really come into play when a game would've otherwise been tied. It also showed what a huge advantage getting first blood is!
This game was full of epic fail saves on my part. My dice really just wanted to roll a lot of one's. I took 7 total saves on my dreadknight before it died. Only one was an invuln and I passed that one! I made 0 saves with my Storm Raven and it exploded and killed all but one of the strike squad inside. The lone psycannon man then failed his leadership and fell back... Only to rally, shoot Ryan's troops on his objective, kill 3 grey hunters, 1 wolf guard in terminator armour, and then make the squad fail their morale test with his massive balls!
As I was saying, this would've made the game a draw, but Ryan had first blood on me (Dreadknight for some reason...) and we both had slay the warlord so he ended up winning by one! It was a rough game for me, but that last play got me back into it. That dude is the Rambo of Grey Knights, haha!

Game 3 vs DE (Kory)
This was triangle deployment (This is by far the worst deployment type btw. It's super inaccurate) with big guns never tire (This is my favorite mission btw. I always have big guns to take objectives!). Kory was playing a pretty standard DE list with a couple major exceptions. First, he had a farseer and some rangers in an Aegis defence line! With Fortune! Secondly, since he didn't have to pay for flickerfields any more, all of his boats had night shields... fml. Luckily, I have been playing Grey knights for a while and I know how to deal with this sort of thing. Unluckily, Kory was wrecking all of my stuff and my StormRaven didn't come on until turn 4! The tide turned a bit when the StormRaven came on though as I had disabled a lot of his firepower with my dreadnoughts by then.

A quick aside, Ravagers seem like they are much more resilient to psyflemen now. They get punched just the same, but I can only kill them on a 5+ now as opposed to a 4+ before. Sure, if I punch three times, I'm going to hull point them out, but that's not going to happen on odds. Venoms on the other hand... Not so good

We ended up tying on objectives, but I had got first blood by killing those Rangers with my Dreadknight. Fire is a rangers only weakness, haha. We both got slay the warlord, so again it came down to who had first blood.

Final Thoughts

Coteaz - Did ok. I got the guide power off every time, but anytime I tried to cast a second power, he perils'ed. I know that's not Coteaz's fault... But it happened everytime! He also only lived to the end of the first game, so I might want to take a more resilient warlord to preserve that point. We'll see C

Purifiers x 10 w/4 x psycannons, 4 x halberds, hammer, stave - This unit was also somewhat meh. They absorbed a lot of firepower, but I don't think they made up for their kp or points in any of the games. They are a huge threat to a lot of armies though and if I would've ran into a horde ork or 'nid army, I would've been glad to have them. But not this time. D

3 squads of henchmen x 3 w/heavy psybolter razorback - These guys did what they were supposed to do. Nothing more, nothing less. CStrike Squad x 5 w/psycannon - Somehow, the strike squad was the all star unit in 2 out of 3 games! They dropped in game one and killed the BA lib, then held off an angry penal legion for 3 turns until the dreadknight could come back him up. Only falling to the last member of the penal legion who wouldn't go down without taking someone with him! Then in game 2, he did his best to get me the draw. Doing literally everything he could! They didn't play much of a role in game 3 though. I think I forgot to roll for them to come on, haha! B+Storm Raven w/MM, AC, psybolt - The Storm Raven was pretty hit and miss. It did ok for me in game one. Missed half it's missiles in game 2, but did get me slay the warlord eventually. And then in game three, I only got to use it for two turns.
It was definitely effective while it was on the table though. I think I might want to try 2 and see how that treats me :) B-

2 Dreadnoughts w/2 x autocannon, psybolt - The heavy lifters in my list, the dreadnoughts always perform. They are all purpose bad asses and even help hold objectives in big guns never tire. Awesomesauce! ADreadknight w/heavy incinerator, heavy psycannon, personal teleporter - I had 40 points left over when I made my list in the morning, so I decided I would try the heavy psycannon. It sucked! Also, I was reminded why I always take 2 dreadknights. One just seems to die too fast. Even in this age of 2+ being the new black, one just doesn't cut it. But I don't want to talk too much trash about the dreadknight. He's my boy! The heavy incinerator is one of the most devastating weapons out there and will continue to be. I just need to figure out some way to get this guy some cover... or FNP! B+